Will the real G Man please stand up?

He's an internet sensation in the world of online gaming, but what is a typical day in the life like for Tom Cupitt aka The G Man, aspiring world champion of Super Smash Brothers?

The line between real life and online gaming gets a bit blurry in this story about Tom Cupitt, aka The G Man, so what does a typical day in the life entail for a hardcore gamer?

That was the question that David Fulham has answered in this short film produced for the ABC Open project Day In The Life.

"I went to school with Tom and he was always a bit of a character," says Fulham, a communication student at the University of Newcastle.

"He always thought he was pretty good at this game so, when we were thinking of someone to show a day in the life of, we thought it would be funny to show another side to Tom, because he has that funny two-personality-type-thing happening."

In the video Fulham shows The G Man at home tongue-in-cheek trash-talking about his 'arch nemesis' Isai, self-proclaimed (on YouTube) world number two at the retro Super Smash Bros, a game title on the Nintendo gaming platform.

"He wants to go for (the world highest score)," Fulham says, "the problem is the guy he's chasing (Isai) lives in America."

A video posted on G Man's YouTube video channel, showing the gamer trash talking about Asai and proclaiming himself to be The King of Super Smash Bros, has attracted more than 4,600 hits.

(Warning the video contains offensive language.)

Fulham and the team that created the Day In The Life story - Kim Draegar and Sam Blomley - highlighted this aspect of the story by showing Cupitt in the G Man persona, as well as screen shots of the YouTube channel, including the number of hits.

"When we were putting the thing together, we obviously couldn't stage a match between him and (Isai), so we kind of tried to put him into the narrative structure in a way where it kind of showed how Tom has created this villain in his own mind," Fulham explains.

The reaction to The G Man video has been positive.

"It's been really cool to watch the reaction so far," says Fulham.

"I think a lot of people just find it kind of funny, but at the same time, when they're finished watching, they've also got a whole heap of questions.

"They just want to know is this guy for real . . . that kind of thing, so it's been pretty funny."

Alter ego and online gaming

Cupitt's alter ego The G Man comes from the persona he adopts when gaming online.

"He reckons he didn't even come up with (the screen name)," Fulham says.

"(The story goes that) he was playing Call Of Duty or something like that one day, and one of the guys that he was 'versing', kept calling him The G Man, because he kept geeing up over the headset, so he just took it and rolled with it."

In online gaming participants are able to hear the real voices of other participants - or those they are 'versing' (playing against) - in real-time, and talk and interact with them.

"Geeing up' can include trash-talking opponents and talking up yourself during game play.

As a result of the amount of time spent playing online games against players in the United States, Cuppit's online persona The G Man slips into an American accent.

"He reckons that kind of comes about, because he does a fair bit of online gaming, and when he puts that headset on, all of the people that he seems to be talking to are from America," Fulham explains.

"So from the amount of gaming that he's done, he's picked up that American accent."

Even though online games are a huge part of Cupitt's life, Fulham's team decided to focus on his fascination with the retro title Super Smash Bros, as well as other aspects of his life outside of gaming, including work.

"He likes a lot of the shoot-em-up style games, but at the same time he kind of has a thing for old kind of retro Nintendo games," Fulham says,

"He games a lot; he plays Nintendo DS, he plays the Nintendo 64, and he also plays Xbox as well, so yeah, he's a bit of an all-round gamer.

"But we chose to just focus on the Super Smash Bros games because this is what he's kind of developed this YouTube stuff around."

The real G Man

Fulham says the finished product is close to what Tom is like in real life.

"It is a little bit exaggerated, The G Man stuff, but that's how he really wanted to be portrayed," Fulham says.

"He wanted to be seen like that, so that's what he gave the camera.

"So that what he's like, at least when he has the headset on, I know that (laughs)".

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Comments

Anthony Scully

Steve. Thanks for pointing out the inaccuracies in this blog, which I have attempted to rectify. You're right, I am a non-gamer, and I have allowed my ignorance to show! I hope this did not diminish your enjoyment of the G Man's story.

Steve Davis

"Cupitt's alter ego The G Man comes from the persona he adopts when playing MMORPG or massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as Call of Duty" - On what planet is Call of Duty a MMORPG? It's clearly a FPS (first person shooter).
"In MMORPG gaming participants are able to hear the real voices of other participants - or those they are 'versing' (playing against) - in real-time, and talk and interact with them." - I think the author must be confusing MMORPGs with online gaming in general. MMORPGs are most often PvE (Player versus Environment), and I've never heard of a PvP in a MMORPG where you can communicate with opposing players.
I won’t bother pointing out all the other mistakes in this article (e.g. "X Box" instead of "Xbox"), but suffice it to say this a poorly written article by someone who is clearly a non-gamer, and the extent of research didn’t even include googling the terms used. Poor effort.

Early Grayce

Nice article on someone that plays a ten year ld game. few gamers play one so old so his competition is very limited. The 360 mas been the TV console with the highest sales numbers for the padt 2 tears so I would actually be impressed if this was about someone who does something current, like from this decade.
G_Man has been used as a gaming name by many people over rthe years. I was
the G_Man during the 2000s but not on a console as real gamers play on PC.